South Korean officials questioned three Chinese fishermen rescued from a boat that capsized during a maritime scuffle with the coast guard in which one fisherman died and another was missing, an official said yesterday.
About 50 Chinese fishing boats were illegally fishing in western South Korean waters off Gunsan, about 270km south of Seoul, on Saturday when a South Korean coast guard ship approached them to try to curb illegal fishing activities, according to the coast guard.
The boat that capsized had intentionally hit the larger coast guard ship, apparently to help its compatriots sail back to Chinese waters, coast guard official Roh Sang-gue said.
Five people from the capsized boat were rescued by Chinese fishing boats, while four others were plucked from the sea by the coast guard ship, Roh said. However, one of four sailors rescued by South Korea later died at a Gunsan hospital, Roh said.
“Questioning is under way for the three Chinese why their ship hit the coast guard vessel,” Roh said, without giving further details.
Coast guard officers fought with fishermen on other Chinese boats, who wielded steel pipes, shovels and clubs, and four of the officers suffered broken arms and other injuries, the coast guard said in a statement on Saturday. None of the injuries was life-threatening.
The coast guard said yesterday it has failed to locate the missing fisherman. Six ships and two helicopters were involved in the search for the man, but coast guard officials said there was only a slim possibility of his survival, given bad weather conditions.
Chinese fishing fleets have been going farther afield to feed growing domestic demand. A collision between a Chinese fishing boat and Japanese coast guard vessels in September led to a nasty diplomatic spat between the two countries over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
More than 300 Chinese fishing boats are captured for fishing illegally in South Korean waters every year, according to South Korea’s coast guard. In 2008, one South Korean coast guard officer was killed and six others injured in a maritime scuffle with Chinese fishermen fishing in South Korean waters.
A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official expressed regret over the death of the -Chinese -fisherman in a telephone call to the Chinese consul general in Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported. Calls to the South Korean Foreign Ministry went -unanswered yesterday.
On Saturday, a man answering the telephone at the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center in Beijing confirmed a Chinese fishing boat capsized in the Yellow Sea and that a Chinese rescue boat was dispatched. The man didn’t give his name as is common with Chinese officials.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS